


Quadruple Drabble: Vorkosigan's Apprentice.

by Lanna Michaels (lannamichaels)



Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Comment Fic, Community: fic_promptly, Quadruple Drabble, Time Period: First Cetagandan War, Time Period: Reign of Dorca Vorbarra, Time Period: Reign of Ezar Vorbarra
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-17
Updated: 2011-02-17
Packaged: 2017-10-15 17:41:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/163244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lannamichaels/pseuds/Lanna%20Michaels
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time Ezar sees General Piotr Vorkosigan, Vorkosigan is covered in mud.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Quadruple Drabble: Vorkosigan's Apprentice.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](http://philomytha.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**philomytha**](http://philomytha.dreamwidth.org/) 's prompt on [](http://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**fic_promptly**](http://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/) : _Vorkosigan, Ezar, starting out as Piotr's military apprentice_ , as part of Gen day on fic_promptly's contest week.

The first time Ezar sees General Piotr Vorkosigan, Vorkosigan is covered in mud, barking orders to his armsmen and infantrymen. Not that there's any difference between those two in the camp, Ezar learns later, and it takes him a full week to discover which of Vorkosigan's men are merely Dendarii hillmen and which are Dorca's mandated twenty, and if this were any time but wartime, Ezar thinks he would be honor bound to do something about that. And then Vorkosigan looks at him and very nearly sneers his way through a bow.

Ezar's barely a Prince, but, well, Vorkosigan's barely a General.

"Xav's orders," Vorkosigan demands, and Ezar hands over the packet of messages and Vorkosigan sits down in the mud right there, waving off an offer of water, and starts going through them. Ezar stands uncomfortably, but after a moment, Vorkosigan jumps to his feet, shouting orders to his men, and grabs Ezar by the elbow. He steers him into a tent.

"Xav said if I received your oath of obedience to your commander, he would have me strung up for treason," Vorkosigan says, sounding bizarrely pleased by that. Xav's orders to Ezar had been along the lines of not letting Vorkosigan bully him into forgetting that Ezar actually outranks him. But if Vorkosigan isn't going to try to insist on it, Ezar would be relieved. And surprised, considering all the stories about young General Count Vorkosigan that have made their way back home. "So while we're pretending that's what we're doing, so I'm not faced with a damned _mutiny_ over it-- Xav's an idiot, did you know? Oh, don't look shocked, you're going to hear worse."

"From a liege-sworn Count?" Ezar asks coldly.

Vorkosigan grins at him wolfishly. "I'll obey any order Xav gives me and he knows it. And now he's given me you." Vorkosigan looks him over and shrugs. "Well, you'll do, I suppose."

And, not surprisingly, _You'll do, I suppose_ , is the highest compliment Ezar gets from the General until the day he pulls Vorkosigan out of his damn beloved Dendarii mud by the skin of his teeth and his last length of rope.

(Decades later, Ezar hears the General whisper "you'll do" and young Gregor looks up at him and blinks and starts crying and then the General gives Ezar back his newborn grandson and Ezar pretends he doesn't notice Piotr wiping away tears.)


End file.
